


Not Everything Can Be Taken Apart (Or Put Back Together)

by hollowsbest



Series: Consequences [5]
Category: Original Work, The Weathervane Journal
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Ghosts, Necromancy, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27912778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollowsbest/pseuds/hollowsbest
Summary: She's desperate for a distraction, to dig her claws into something and do somethingusefulfor a change. To find a distraction big enough her brain will shut up about her mistakes for a while.Jasper finds it, but not the way she was expecting.
Series: Consequences [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2043850





	Not Everything Can Be Taken Apart (Or Put Back Together)

**Author's Note:**

> fun fact! jasper's a human-turned-demon through soul shenanigans! and most folks at the weathervane and in her party are supernatural beings!

The more you prepare, the more you feel in control. The more you figure things out, the less you feel out of your depth.  
You are trying and trying and trying and _trying_. It never feels like enough.

It’s like you’re walking on a tightrope. Thousands of feet in the air, nothing to catch you if you fall. ~~(When you fall.)~~ One wrong step and you’ll slip, dragging everyone else down with you. But, there are ways to tie yourself to the tightrope. To make it less of a tightrope and more of a beam, or maybe some sort of path.  
It’s hard though, so tremendously hard to turn this tiny little corkscrew of wires into a proper piece of pavement. But you try. God, you try.

It helps to have something to focus on, to distract you.  
First, it was India’s necklace; but you’re done with that now, it sits solidly against her throat whenever she deems it necessary to leave the Weathervane. You quickly grew restless without the tireless work of deciphering an artificer’s notes to keep you busy.

Second, you try occupying yourself by figuring out potential defensive flaws in the Weathervane’s design. You can’t find anything more Heather would be willing to fix, it isn’t a _fortress_ after all. (You’d already done this after the Open Maw, Heather’d already done everything she was willing to do.)  
This ended faster than the first, leaving you itching to _do_ something. Anything. Cases were slow and finding ways to drown out your brain even more so.

Until Old School Green. There, you had a realisation. Rory was not doing okay, and the potential ramifications of that were _tremendous_.  
You had something that required an absolute absurd amount of research and digging to figure out once again at your fingertips. This was not something you were about to let go, especially not something this important. (It also helped fill your thoughts with worries over something _else_ for a change.)

Rory is a ghost, and ghosts are emotional beings, this is a well-known solid fact. But what is lesser known, is what turns a ghost into a poltergeist, or worse.  
The more emotional turmoil a ghost feels, the less stable it becomes. Until it shatters and turns into a mockery of what it once was.  
They are shards of their deceased self, and only have so much capacity for emotion before they start to break down and become more erratic. Usually hurting themselves and those around them in the process.  
If given the right support, and enough time between extreme emotional distress, a ghost can stay stable. But this isn’t common. Once a ghost starts to turn, starts losing themself, it is a very difficult place to pull them out of.

You will not allow this to happen to Rory, you’ll deal with it early. Catch it before it has a chance to truly take root, and stabilise her and allow her to continue being herself rather than a sparking ball of anger and fear.  
But for that, you’ll likely need Necromancy.

You have quite a large amount of dislike for the necromantic, especially the kind that deals in raising spirits from their rest and fucking with souls. That, you hate. You bare no ill will against the undead themselves of course, not their fault some shitty necromancy wizard brought them back into existence. The dead should stay dead, as unless they were somehow raised before their soul left, they would never be anything more than an echo; which hurts everyone involved.

But, to help Rory you needed to know how to _stabilise_ something as unstable as a ghost. Held together by only the pure drive of the emotional state at death, you’re amazed she’s lasted as long as she has. However with everything that’s occurred recently, you’ve been kicking yourself for not noticing sooner. ~~(You’re worried it’s too late already.)~~

So, you search. You dig deep into your reservoir of contacts and knowledge, you traverse the section on Necromancy in the Black Archives.  
You find nothing. No one has ever seemed to have a thought on how to stabilise a ghost, let alone written a detailed instruction on _how_. And on top of this, you have _Hell_ to prepare for. It’s overwhelming. But as always, you’ll manage. You’ve always managed.

You widen your search range, something to do with souls will likely glean results. Despite it being a very specific part of necromancy that disgusts you the most. Your soul is _essential_. Knowing that there’s people out there who’d dare carve it up by their own design makes you shudder. (This mostly being an aspect of you having lost yours.)  
You read and cross-reference and set aside how much your skin crawls every time you have to touch a book made of human flesh.

And eventually… You’re able to make a working theory of a potential process to stabilise a ghost. It’s utterly abhorrent, it involves part of a process that makes liches, and… It’ll save her.

It better, with what you’ll need to do for it.


End file.
